Plot in The Great Gatsby

Plot Examples in The Great Gatsby:

Chapter VII

"“The God Damn coward!” he whimpered. “He didn’t even stop his car.”..." See in text (Chapter VII)

The plot device of the car-switching has paid off: Gatsby and Daisy drove into New York in Tom’s blue coupé, but they left New York in Gatsby’s distinctive yellow car, and the confusion caused by this change has brought Tom within range of George Wilson’s suspicions. Also notable is Tom’s failure to tell the police about Gatsby’s ownership of the yellow car, presumably to avoid directing attention toward Daisy’s presence at the time of Myrtle’s death.

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Chapter VIII

"She ran out to speak to him and he wouldn’t stop...." See in text (Chapter VIII)

Wilson is convinced that Myrtle’s lover murdered her, even though Michaelis has insisted that her death was a tragic accident. Regardless, murder seems plausible to Wilson, perhaps in part because he recalls Myrtle returning home from New York with a bruised face and a swollen nose—presumably he is referring to her visit to the city with Tom and Nick. For Wilson, this memory links the ideas of Myrtle’s lover and violence, though Michaelis’s recollections seem to imply that Wilson himself was guilty of similar violence toward Myrtle on her final day.

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